High technology, innovation and a willingness to look at every opportunity that comes along are at the root of the success of James Price, recently named Young Farmer of the Year by industry bible Farmers Weekly.

Mr Price, 30, took over much of the management of his father’s business, Perdiswell Farm, near Woodstock, back in 2003, shortly after completing a two-year course at the Cirencester Agricultural College.

Now, with his father Malcolm increasingly taking a back seat in the day-to-day management of the farm, he is in charge of obtaining maximum yield from about 1,600 arable acres of challenging Cotswold soil — while at the same time increasing the fertility of the land year-on-year, and making it ever more attractive for wildlife.

A tall order, but one Mr Price is tackling with the help of the latest computerised techniques and a few experiments that seem to be working out successfully — such as using waste coffee from the Kraft factory in Banbury as fertiliser on fields sown with wheat, barley and beans.

Mr Price said: “In the last couple of years yield has been 3.8 tonnes an acre, which is good since we originally budgeted for three tonnes.”

The almost clinically clean farmyard, with the beautifully-converted barn in which James lives — all glass and light coloured wood at one end, and the old farmhouse in which his father lives at the other — all seems a far cry from the early days of the Price family’s involvement in farming.

Mr Price explained: “My grandfather, Donald, bought the farm in 1946 because my grandmother, Joyce, worked at the milk bar, Agricola, in George Street, Oxford, and wanted to supply it with milk.

“He bought 60 acres here and another 200 in Oddington and kept a herd of pedigree Jersey cows until 1972.

“In 1991 my father sold the Oddington land for development. Then we bought more land near here at Upper Campsfield and now we own about 500 acres and the rest is rented or contract farmed.”

As Farmers Weekly commented when he took the top award: “Maintaining strong, trusting relationships with local landlords has been key to his success.”

His strategy has been to grow the family business, DVH Price and Son, and to diversify to spread the risk.

Mr Price said: “Certainly, taking a 400-acre block to manage from Blenheim in 2003 when the estate gave up direct farming was an important step for us.”

But how did the idea of making fertiliser from coffee waste come about?

Mr Price explained: “I was already working with Dave Ventress from Thames Water on fertiliser derived from sewage and he suggested that we give coffee a go.

“Now Charlie Baker, based near Banbury who, incidentally, won the Farmers Weekly Contractor of the Year award, mixes the coffee up with straw on a hard standing at Oxford airport. People tend to know each other in this business and I grew up with Charlie’s children.”

New technology is something he has embraced wholeheartedly and expensive farm machinery is apparent the minute you walk through the farm gate.

But his passion for innovation does not stop with shiny gizmos. This year he invested in a new weighbridge and last year he spent £80,000 on a new grain store to accommodate milling wheat grown on a contract for bread company Warburton.

He is the first to admit he is lucky to be given the chance to expand the business at such a young age, and is careful to take advice about expenditure and expansion from his father and from a farming consultancy.

But all the same it comes as a surprise to learn that these impressive yields are achieved with no full-time employees — just two part-timers.

Mr Price said: “I work with GPS (Global Positioning System) on the tractor. It does not mean I can sit in my office and do all the ploughing by computer, but it does mean I can use auto-steering and be much more precise. I save about ten per cent of diesel costs that way.”

As a sideline Mr Price works with agricultural high tech company Yara, fitting so-called N-sensors to the roof of his tractor cab to give continuous read-outs about the state of the land and crops he is working on, zone by zone, and applying fertiliser in exactly the required amounts.

He admitted: “I am very keen on this. Indeed I really entered the Young Farmer of the Year award to bring the spotlight of publicity onto this system rather than onto myself.”

And what about his green credentials?

Mr Price said: “Over the years land has been depleted in Britain and it’s important now to put back what has been taken out by scientific, well-targeted use of fertilisers.

“Apart from doing that I have endorsed the Countryside Stewardship Agreement. I am helped in this side of things by my sister, Vicky Robinson, who works for the Government’s Natural England.

“We have planted hedgerows, my dad planted three new woods and, of course, we leave wide strips at the edge of fields.”

Lapwings and grey partridges are now to be found on the farm — which pleases his mother Margaret, a keen birdwatcher — along with snipe and brown hares.

So can this be the future? Better soil, more wildlife, and better yields. It sounds almost too good to be true.

Let us hope it isn’t. And good luck to the award-winning Price enterprise.

Name: DVH Price and Son Established: 1946 Manager: James Price

Number of staff: Two part-time Annual turnover: £500,000

Contact: 01993 811009